After two years of completing very muddy Nuclear Races unique brand of OCR we opted for a change and decided to look for something more fun oriented and slightly less muddy! (Not my choice...I love the mud!)
I found out about Rough Runner thanks to being a total targeted marketing victim on Facebook and it popping up on my feed. The colourful picture of the travelator well and truly piqued my interest and I was soon able to put together a little family team.
The online registration was a little clunky when trying to book us all on the same waves etc and then add t-shirt to our order (have to buy them seperatley) but I managed to sort that with only one or two annoyed sighs. All the info came through on e-mail and was pretty clear, I pre-ordered t-shirts which was straighforward enough as was collecting them and swapping sizes etc. I am so glad i bought a t-shirt...they are so distincitve its easy for people to spot you at other events! They are good quality and decently priced.
in terms of organisation on the day I thought it was pretty good, lots of car parking and lots of loo's which is usually my first indicator of how well an event will be organised! The little race village had plenty of food and drink outlets with pretty standard pricing. It also had an excellent view of the last obstacle which was the travelator which was great.
The atmosphere was pleasant, everyone was there for a bit of fun as opposed to being serious 'mud runners' although there were a few 'touch mudder' t-shirts on show. I personally thought they looked a bit daft as this is far from a hardcore OCR.
The course itself was utterly stunning, there was a fair bit of running involved between obstancles and the terrain was undulating however it was thoroughly pleasant. The obstacles were mostly situated in inflatable pools so if you fall you fall into grubby water which you can easily stand up in and they were none too troubling..nothing too high etc I personally would have liked to have had a few more obstacles to break up some of the running. We did the 10k and there were a few extra obstacles on the 15k that we didn't get to do; I thought this was amshame as you could see them as you ran passed, it was a bit of a fittness tease!
I have only two very minor criticisms. The first one being the lack of robust marshalling - some of the obstacles attracted quit large queues when people struggled to do them but just wouldn't give up...and either needed some marshall motivation or to be told just to drop to avoid the queues forming. I'm all for people facing their fear and trying things but not at the expense of lots of other people who are wet through and likely to get cold and ill when stopping for too long. The second one was the photgraphs, this is sadly themeatic with lots of events but the pricing was extortionate and on a course which it was quite difficult for spectators to see you on multiple obstacles it was sad not to be able to caputre the moments. That being said their coverage was pretty good although we posed for a family photo that never appeared which was annoying.
The showers and changing rooms at the end were brilliant, this is the only event that I have been too with hot and powerful showers! Genius! They could have done with a few more to avoid the queues but I for one was happy to wait a while and pay for their use plus it made me more inclined to chill out in the event village afterwards.
i'd thoroughly reccomend this event for anyone thinking about trying an obstacle course race that isn't too serious or too muddy. This is refelcted in their simplistic medal which doubles as a bottle opener. I thought it was good value for money but they could re-consider the amount charged for photos; especially when you consider the fact that the more phots out their the more publicity via social media you get!